Indian Gazelles in a VUCA World

Abstract

In the 21st century, organisational leaders face unprecedented levels of dynamic and deep change, with the rate, severity, and frequency of change accelerating to produce volatile, unpredictable, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) operational environments. The world is in transition (Drucker, 2001). It has always been difficult for people to keep up with technological, economic, and social advances, but due to increased global interconnectedness and the accelerating rate of change, it has become increasingly challenging to do so today. The word "VUCA" describes some crucial aspects of these developments and, as a result, has gained prominence in recent years (Abidi and Joshi 2018). Firms today work in a VUCA world that has become the norm. They are faced with a straightforward decision: to accept the new normal and adjust to it with agility, new models, fresh thinking, and innovative approaches—or to be weighed down by their own inertia. Due to competition, businesses must constantly adapt to their changing environment. Business advantages might disappear overnight. The corporate world is undergoing major shifts as a result of trends including digitization, regulatory uncertainty, expanding markets, deconstruction of the value chain, and the need for increased organisational agility. For firms to stay ahead of the competition, they must constantly innovate. In today’s dynamic and highly competitive business environment, we have different types of firms, and gazelles are one of them. Since the beginning of the 2000s, interest in analysing "gazelle" enterprises has increased significantly. The term "gazelle" is used to refer to businesses that are capable of achieving rapid growth. These companies are intriguing because they create a large number of new jobs (Storey, 1984). Gazelles are distinguished by the nature and timing of their transformation process. It is not a steady expansion, but rather a radical shift in the enterprise's evolution that affects all of its performance indicators (Coad, Daunfeldt, Holzl, Johansson, and Nightingale, 2014). The rise of "gazelle" companies is extremely robust and rapid. It typically entails a process of strategy change and reorientation affecting all organisational levels as well as the dynamic of a firm's strategic fit with its environment (Moreno and Casillas, 2003). The research paper examines the VUCA readiness of gazelle firms in India and attempts to find an answer to our principal research question, "Are gazelle firms VUCA ready?"